Review of South Park Volume 12

Introduction

It`s volume 12 of South Park, and by now we`ve reached series 4. The first 5 episodes of the series are featured here, and the regular cast are joined by some new regular characters, with some of the more minor regulars getting their roles beefed up throughout the season. A sign of the team running out of ideas, or just a shrewd move to strengthen the existing characters?

Video

A good full frame transfer is presented here, with no problems of note. This is as you would expect for such a young TV programme.

Audio

Continuing the trend set by all of the preceding discs, a DD2.0 stereo track, perfectly adequate for the job. But unlike previous seasons the French audio track has now vanished, so you don`t get to try and understand the jokes in French. No great loss though.

Features

No extras at all. The extras of the first season are but a dim and distant memory.

Conclusion

Five great episodes that ensure the fourth season continues where the third left off.

"Cartman`s Silly Hate Crime 2000" sees our hero sent to a young offenders centre. His friends are missing him and definitely need him back to add "weight" to their attempt to beat the girls in a sledging race. The girls indulge in some "sledging" of their own, using as many different euphemisms for homosexuality as they can when they taunt their opponents. Can Cartman`s friends break him out in time?

"The Tooth Fairy`s Tats 2000" features our heroes muscling in on the Tooth Fairy`s market and making a fortune by stealing from pillows across South Park. But they run into trouble from the local mini mafia and face a tricky situation.

"Quintuplets 2000" showcases Kenny and his fledging singing career. And there are some Romanian Contorting Quintuplets who try to stay in the USA when they escape from the circus. Can they escape the clutches of Janet Reno and begin a new life in the west?

"Timmy! 2000" features one of the new regulars, Timmy, who spends his life in a wheelchair and can only say his own name. He is diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and prescribed lots of pills. The rest of the class follow suit, and the pills start to have funny side-effects, including the appreciation of the work of Phil Collins. Will they realise the error of their ways in time?

"Pip" is a departure from the norm, as a real life Malcolm McDowell narrates the story of Pip, which bears a lot of similarity to Great Expectations by a certain Charles Dickens. An amusing tale and nice to see McDowell playing someone other than an evil villain.

A great start to the fourth season, and highly recommended for fans. If you can stretch to it you should buy the fourth season box set, as it can work out at up to half the price of buying each disc individually!